Along with the development of instant messaging technology, a user may transmit various formats of instant messages, such as texts, audios, pictures and the like, through an instant messaging application. By taking both parties of a session as a first user and a second user for an example, a terminal of the first user may display instant messages transmitted between the first user and the second user in an instant messaging session window for communicating with the second user.
A message having an associated picture means that a picture is displayed in form of a thumbnail. When the terminal of the first user receives a message having an associated picture sent by the second user, firstly a thumbnail is displayed in an instant messaging session window. When the terminal detects an operation that the first user clicks on the thumbnail, a picture associated with the message is downloaded. When the downloading of the picture is finished, the picture is displayed.
When the terminal displays the thumbnail, the content of the picture is fuzzy, and the previewing effect is poor. Furthermore, the terminal may start downloading the picture when it detects the operation that the first user clicks on the thumbnail. Therefore, the operation is tedious, and the efficiency for processing messages is reduced.